For years, whispers have echoed through the Aerosmith fan community about an unreleased track from the Get a Grip sessions called “Brass Balls.” It’s one of those songs that sits in the shadows of bootleg lore, never officially released, but just enough evidence exists to keep the curiosity alive.
Back in the late ‘90s, Aerosmith’s official website hosted a curious file named “brassballzSO91.wav.” The “SO91” part is telling — Studio Outtake 1991 — which places it squarely in the early days of writing for Get a Grip. The file reportedly came from Vindaloo Music, Aerosmith’s Boston office, giving it a layer of legitimacy that fan myths often lack.
The clip itself is short. It opens with a steady drum loop, followed by a guitar riff that cycles through A, B, and Em chords — gritty, mid-tempo, a little bluesy but with a modern bite. Then, Steven Tyler’s voice cuts through. Almost spoken, he drops a line and a half of lyrics:
“Somebody throw me a line,
I’m down here where the sun never shines,
Abandoned by my daddy at birth…”
And then it cuts. Just enough to raise questions, not enough to satisfy. But this tiny fragment tells a lot. In typical Aerosmith fashion, it paints a picture of someone born into hard times, left to scrap and claw their way through life. There’s no gloss here, no MTV sheen — this is dirt-under-the-nails Aerosmith, the kind of story they told best when they got personal.
The title “Brass Balls” screams bravado, but knowing Tyler, it’s likely laced with irony. It’s easy to imagine the phrase being used as both a badge of honor and a self-deprecating jab. The guy in the song isn’t a hero — he’s a survivor. With daddy gone, momma disappointed, and the world kicking him down, all he’s got left is a pair of brass balls and the will to swing them.
Stylistically, this fits right in with other Get a Grip-era themes. Think of songs like “Eat the Rich” and “Ain’t That a Bitch” where Tyler’s lyrics blend street-smart sass with a bitter edge. But where those songs went big and loud, “Brass Balls” feels like it would’ve stayed down in the dirt, a bluesy, slinky underdog anthem.
If the rest of the song followed the flow of that first couplet, it’s easy to picture how the verses could go. This is just speculation, but they could go something like:
Somebody throw me a line,
I’m down here where the sun never shines,
Abandoned by my daddy at birth,
Kicked to the curb, never knew my worth,
Mama worked the graveyard grind,
Dreams got pawned, left love behind,
Every scar, is a story I own,
Brass knuckles heart, skin and bone.
Somebody toss me a bone,
I’m scratching for scraps on a heart gone wrong,
A misfit king with a cardboard throne,
Built my crown from sticks and stones,
Mama said “you better be wise”
But life’s got a mean left hook, no lie,
Still I grin with a chipped smile,
Now I’m chewing on nails and spitting ’em out.
The chorus practically writes itself, a rallying cry built around the title:
“Brass Balls, baby, they don’t break,
Swingin’ through the fire, let the whole world shake.
Brass Balls, honey, that’s my creed,
A little bit of hell is all I need.”
One can imagine Tyler snarling these lines, prowling the stage with that patented mix of defiance and swagger, while Joe Perry’s riff snakes underneath. Maybe it didn’t make the album because it was too raw, too unpolished for a record that leaned hard into radio-friendly polish. Maybe it was just a jam that never found its final form.
But in the world of Aerosmith outtakes, sometimes the ones that get away are the ones that fans can’t stop thinking about. “Brass Balls” feels like one of those songs — unfinished, unrefined, but all the more intriguing for it.
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